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Susur goes next with his purple potatoes, roasted pork chop with glazed grapes. The whole dish is arranged to look like Marge’s face; it’s pretty cool. Groening loves the creativity, noting that Marge will often use chocolate chips to make a happy face in her kids’ pancakes. He says that she would adore this dish.

The diners see a sandwich and beer coming and Azaria predicts that it’s for Homer. He’s right. From Rick we get a sloppy joe sandwich with truffle potato chips and beer. Groening loves the flavor, though he wonders if Homer would be put out by the fact that there’s some healthy fish in the sandwich. Azaria says that Homer would inhale the sandwich, then get angry afterwards if told.

Jody goes next with a brilliant, brilliant dish. For the vegetarian Lisa, she makes a cracked wheat salad with goat milk ricotta, BBQ beets and baked kale chips. Groening remarks that he almost never eats healthy and calls the dish refreshing. He also notes that Lisa would love this dish, though she might be put out by the deep friend chips (“NO!” Jody yells from backstage, “they’re BAKED. BAKED!”)

Marcus is next with a dish for Apu. I thought that this was the most obvious choice for a dish – go INDIAN. Marcus agrees and has created a veritable Indian feast. Interestingly enough, while the three diners agree that everything tastes good, Groening notes that Apu often takes pains to hide his origins, quoting Apu as saying, “By the seven arms of Vishnu, I swear it. I am not a Hindu.” Of course, you’d have to be a pretty big Simpsons expert to know this, so I think Marcus is forgiven.

Lastly, we have a dish for Bart from Jonathan. He thought of his two sons when cooking up a dish of spaghetti with a grilled tomato ham sandwich. I find this pretty boring – nothing about it says “Bart” to me. The diners, though, rave about the flavor, with Groening saying that if Bart ate this, he’d brag about it to Millhouse and Nelson at school the next day.

I’m not sure what exactly the criteria for judgment is (appropriateness of dish for character, overall flavor, etc.) but the judges have spoken. Susan/Moe gets 4 stars, Tony/Wiggum gets 3 stars, Susur/Marge gets 3 ½ stars, Marcus/Apu gets 4 stars, Jody/Lisa gets 4 stars, Rick/Homer gets 4 ½ stars and Jonathan/Bart gets 4 stars. Wow, I did not expect Rick to get it, but I think that cooking for Homer was probably one of the easier tasks. My boyfriend found Jody’s dish to be the most thoughtful, and I tend to agree.

For the Elimination Round, the producers have brought back a classic from Season 3. The Masters will have to choose two “exotic” (i.e. disgusting) proteins to create a “Scary Surf ‘n Turf.” Trey won this one last time, with an ostrich fillet (yum…I think). The Masters have a bevy of delicious (i.e. revolting) ingredients to choose from: monkfish liver, black chicken, jumbo squid, goat leg, kangaroo, duck tongue, sea cucumber, and geoduck. They’ll need one land animal and one sea animal to make their surf ‘n turf.

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